Sharing, Caring, Helping, Protection and Cooperation by Mindfulness and Right Understanding.

15 December 2015

“Election” - Part One

“Election”

Teaching of Venerable Sayadaw Ashin Ottamasara

Delivered on 8th November 2015

at Thabarwa Centre (Thanlyin)

(1) Wholesome Vote and Unwholesome or

Merit Vote and Demerit Vote (Kusala Vote and Akusala Vote)

Today is an
Election Day in Myanmar. For all
eligible voters, those who wish to cast their vote can go to the voting
stations to vote either for their preferred candidate or the party. Though all
the religious personnel (monks and nuns) are prohibited from voting on Election
Day, by doing dana, observing sila and practicing meditation bhavana, we are also casting Wholesome
Votes and Unwholesome Votes on daily basis.

In the
mundane world, there are various types of professions available for people with
different intellects. At personal level, in order to prevail over unwholesome
deeds, we need to refrain from giving full support to mundane endeavours. In order for our merit making party to be
triumph over its opponent, we should strive to do more wholesome deeds like
doing dana, observing sila and practicing meditation bhavana.
We must propagate this victory over to our surroundings, ward, township,
city, state, country, world and the whole universe.

At personal
level, we do dana, observe sila and practice meditation bhavana on top of our mundane
responsibilities. At Thabarwa Centre, I especially teach and train all the
yogis to carry out their mundane responsibilities without interrupting their dana, sila and bhavana duties.

You can overcome initial difficulties by doing wholesome deeds
repeatedly. Whatever endeavours you undertake, including practicing meditation,
always try to do wholesome deeds (dana, sila and bhavana) continuously, for everyone. Your actions will become unwholesome if
you think of yourself only with egocentric point of view.

You cannot
avoid the impressions, misunderstandings, gossiping, bickering, accusations,
condemnations, arguments and disputes of others. When made by others, these mistakes will not
be so important to you. But they will
become seriously unwholesome and tarnish your dana if you grasp
your perception of 'who said what to me’, ‘who has what impression about me’,
and take others’ wrong doings with an egocentric point of view. These kind of
blunders are even happening in meditation centres.

Whatever you
do with good intention is wholesome. While walking on the path paved by the
noble ones and doing wholesome deeds, though you do not need to purposely avoid
others impressions, misunderstandings, gossiping, bickering, accusations and
condemnation, you also do not need to grasp and attach to them. If you grasp
them, you will create either loba (greed) or dosa (anger) or moha (delusion)
and it will be unwholesome. Thus, when dealing with these situations, strive to
experience-only, use-only and do-only.

Other
people’s wrong words are not your wrongdoings or unwholesome deeds (akusala). Your actions will become
unwholesome only when you do wrong things.

Your actions
will not become virtuous base on others’ compliments. Your actions will become
wholesome only when you do right things.

Your actions
will not become virtuous base on others’ favourable impressions. Neither will
they become your wrongdoing based on others' unfavourable impressions. Your
actions will become virtuous only when you do right things.

Your actions
will not become unwholesome base on others’ dislike. Your actions will become
unwholesome only when you do wrong things.

Mundane
(worldly) endeavours must be carried out according to the preference of the
public. Thus, the opinion and impression
of the public might be important in worldly situations. In contrast, practicing meditation or doing
wholesome deeds must be done individually.
Thus, it is important for you to take the right action when you are
doing wholesome deeds. If you are given
a choice, which candidate will you vote for … the wholesome deeds (doing dana, observing sila and
practicing meditation bhavana) or
unwholesome deeds :

-Will you vote
for the wholesome deed, doing dana, or for an unwholesome
deed?

-Will you vote
for the wholesome deed, observing sila, or for an
unwholesome deed?

-Will you vote
for the wholesome deed, practicing meditation bhavana, or for an unwholesome
deed?

-Which
candidate will you vote for?

Even though
these wholesome and unwholesome deeds are your own actions, you still need to
cast your vote for either side. The choice is yours. Though by nature we tend
to vote for the wrong candidates, we still can amend our wrongs.

When you combine all the wrongdoings or the virtuous actions of
individual people, individual yogis, or individual monks or nuns, these will
become the wrongdoings and virtuous actions of the whole centre. At the centre
level, compete and conquer the unwholesome deeds with the wholesome deeds of sila(morality),samadhi(concentration) andpanna(wisdom/insight).
At the individual level,
always try to do wholesome deeds and vote for the merit-making party. We need
to work hard for the merit-making party to claim victory at every stage and
level, starting from the collective level.

(2)
Merit-making Party and Lack-of-Merit Party (or) Good Party and Bad PartyThere are two main parties, the Merit-making
Party and Lack-of-Merit Party, or, the Good Party and Bad Party.

We need to unanimously vote for the good
party in order to prevail over its opponent. This kind of election that is held
regularly is concerned not only with the country but also with the whole world
and the whole universe. Good deeds and bad deeds, justices and injustices, are
contending for victory in groups, individually, worldwide and universally. The
powerful team can mutually defeat other teams.

There will be positive results if the merit-making
party is victorious. Otherwise, more votes for the bad or demerit party will
bring negative results. Doing dana,
observing sila and
practicing meditation are good or wholesome deeds that we all should do consistently.
If we do not do those good deeds continuously and diligently, we will
instinctively vote for the bad or lack-of-merit party.

If we want to act for the welfare of
ourselves, our families, our organizations, our communities, our countries, our
world and our universe, we must choose to do good deeds such as dana, silaand
meditation practice. Besides, we must try to purify our mind and stay calm. We
must not leave our mind as it is. This means we should not let our mind follow
our desire. Otherwise, our mind will become unstable and impure.

If we do not do right and beneficial deeds,
we will choose spontaneously to do wrong deeds and worthless deeds. Therefore,
it is necessary to have right understanding all the time. That's why we must
try to do more dana, sila
and bhavana.

It is necessary to choose to do good deeds
that can be done at anytime, anywhere, in any situation. We must try to win over
the wrong action of choosing to vote for doing bad deeds (lack-of-merit). Just practicing meditation once a day is not
enough. Whatever we do we must try to be mindful with right understanding at
anytime, in any situation. In this way, we must try not to vote for the bad or
lack-of-merit party. We must try not to act with greed, anger and delusion.

Voting for the good or merit-making party one
time means being mindful with right understanding and doing good deeds. This kind of voting is not done in vain. It is
very meaningful and worthwhile. It is very rewarding, because you will get as
much merit as the work you put in. This reward cannot be destroyed. No one can
falsify the results of a good deed as they could the results of an election.

Daily activities to participate ….

ThaBarWa Centre or ThaBarWa Yeiktha is an ideal place for learning and practicing meditation as well as for helping others who have physical and mental limitations and difficulties.

Our center takes care of everybody, regardless of age, race and religion, who cannot support themselves and survive on their own due to various reasons and at the same time teaching them how to meditate and purify their mind.

The population of our centre is more than 2,500. By staying at our centre, you will have plenty of chances to experience and participate in the following activities …

1. Following the monks in their daily alms rounds and helping in distributing the alms food to infirm, old folks and meditators.

2. Taking care of and assisting infirm or old folks with their chores.

3. Visiting branches of ThaBarWa Centres (across Myanmar).

4. Learning Burmese culture and the people.

5. Attending insight meditation session and classes.

6. Helping in the kitchen, cooking and distributing food.

7. Helping in the health care, in the clinics and wards.

8. Helping in the library.

9. Assisting Venerable with management, IT and technology.

10. Visiting the mercy villages which were established (by ThaBarWa) for homeless and needy families and individuals.

11. Sharing your language, IT and technology knowledge and expertise with adults and Children of our centre.

Sayadaw Ashin Ottamasara

Please click the photo to visit Sayadaw's facebook

Biography

Sayadaw Ashin Uttamasara was born in Katha, Sagaing Division, Myanmar on Sunday 26th October 1969.

Since his youth he placed full value on education. He passed Matriculation in 1986 with flying colors. After completing a B.A (English, Honors) from the University of Yangon in 1992, he became a young entrepreneur and successful businessman within a short period of time.

Faced with difficulties and frustrations in running a complex business for 7 years, he sought refuge in the Dhamma in 1999. With the help of a Dhamma friend, he entered the Mogok Meditation Centre at Insein Monastery for a five-day meditation retreat, becoming initiated in Dhamma contemplation and practice.

From February 1999 to January 2002 he deeply concentrated on meditation. He became so devoted to Dhamma that he was able to reduce his business calmly, without much attachment.

For the propagation of Dhamma he donated all the assets he had accumulated during 6 years of entrepreneurship. He then concentrated on charity, morality and insight contemplation to find the perfect Truth.

In 2002, he was ordained in Yangon by Sayadaw U Nayyasagara and started to teach Vipassana Insight Meditation.

Today, Sayadaw teaches Dhamma and Guided Vipassana Insight Meditation in various institutions, schools, hospitals and individual residences in Myanmar and other countries.

Sayadaw remains a well-known name throughout the shores of Myanmar and beyond.

Thabarwa is a place for everyone!!

Thabarwa Center is a non-profit humanitarian organization working for a noble cause.

We provide a home sweet home for everybody (both for locals and foreigners alike), unconditionally.

We open 24 hours a day, seven days a week without recess.

The activities of Sayadaw Ashin Uttamasara and Thabarwa Center are wide and various, serving the spiritual and physical needs of thousands from far and near.

More and more visitors from all over Myanmar and abroad are coming daily to visit, learn meditation and volunteer their skills and time in caring for those taking refuge at Thabarwa Center.

Good deeds at Thabarwa

• Providing refuge not only for meditators but also for the old aged, homeless, orphans, loners, infirm and the people with physical and mental difficulties.

• Currently more than 2,500 people (as of October 2015) taking refuge at our centre.

• Providing health care, food, clothing, shelter, clean water for cooking and drinking, etc. and offering aids and support for free of charge.

• Solving day to day problems of centre residents, meditators, volunteers and visitors.

• Communicating and cooperating with volunteers, charities, non-profit organizations and philanthropists from Myanmar and abroad.

• Conducting daily Vipassana Insight Meditation and Dhamma Talks.

• Conducting retreats in the traditions of renowned vipassana meditation masters. All the meditation methods are being utilized without attachment to any particular method.